The context of study abroad: affordances and constraints in the development of plurilingual identity

Abstract

This study examines study abroad as a context for plurilingual identity development in response to the critique of identity research in applied linguistics, which points to a bias that emphasises user agency and disregards the impact of structural elements. It is based on the analysis of the contextual constraints and affordances for developing plurilingual identity that SA students refer to in their narratives. The analysis shows that structure can be as important a component as agency and that students' representations of the SA context are linked to their pre-SA plurilingual experience and the portrayal of their plurilingual identity.